Donald Kennedy and Russ Kremer: It's time for bold action to protect antibiotics

By Donald Kennedy and Russ Kremer

Posted:
11/29/2012 12:42:03 PM PST

Updated:
11/30/2012 06:48:51 PM PST

In February, an international team of scientists from 20 different research institutes made a disturbing discovery: a strain of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria known as MRSA had jumped from humans to farm animals -- where it acquired resistance to antibiotics used on the farm -- and back again to humans.

MRSA is the acronym for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, the potentially lethal staph infection most people associate with hospitals. These bacteria can cause skin, blood, urinary tract and surgical wound infections, as well as pneumonia. Because MRSA infections resist treatment by penicillin, tetracycline, methicillin, and other antibiotics, they can and do kill people.

More recently, a different international team of researchers found that living in the vicinity of high densities of livestock increases the likelihood of a person carrying MRSA nasally. In other words, depending on where you live, you could become a MRSA carrier simply by breathing.

MRSA is a phenomenon of our time -- part of the public health crisis emerging from antibiotic resistance. Bacteria become resistant to antibiotics after surviving exposure to medications meant to kill them, a natural evolutionary process accelerated due to the use of antimicrobial medicines in human medicine and on the farm.

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Scientists discovered resistant strains of Staphylococci almost immediately after penicillin became available for medical treatment in 1946. It's no longer so easy for patients to demand and obtain antibiotics when they don't need them, as for a cold that might be viral rather than bacterial. Animal agriculture, however, has lagged behind human medicine in admitting its contribution to resistant disease and taking steps to restrict unnecessary use.

Studies on animal-associated strains of MRSA like the one mentioned above contribute to an overwhelming body of evidence showing that the heavy use of antibiotic drugs in food animals significantly contributes to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant human infections. The list of infections strongly linked to agricultural overuse of antibiotics includes food poisoning caused by resistant Salmonella and Campylobacter, urinary tract infections and systemic blood infections.

And it's no wonder. According to FDA data, nearly 80 percent of antibiotics sold in the United States are for use in farm animals. Most of the drugs are used not to treat sick animals but rather to promote growth and to compensate for overcrowded, unsanitary living conditions. Such practices have been banned in the European Union since 2006.

Each of us has signed a national statement calling on the FDA and Congress to end the imprudent use of antibiotics in animal agriculture. Released in September, one statement was signed by more than 150 of the nation's Ph.D.-level scientists and M.D. researchers, including several of the foremost experts involved in studying this problem. The statement was prompted by persistent industry claims that the science of antibiotic resistance is not settled and, by implication, that no action is needed to address the public health crisis it constitutes.

Another statement was signed by more than 50 farmers, ranchers, and producers of antibiotic-free meat. These entrepreneurs signed out of concern for the health of their customers, neighbors, and employees — and their own families. More important, the signatories' economic success is testament that it is economically viable to produce meat, dairy products, and eggs that are safe to eat without continually dosing animals with drugs they don't need.

We cannot afford more inaction. Congress and the Obama administration must act.

Donald Kennedy served as FDA commissioner from 1977 to 1979 and is president emeritus of Stanford University. Russ Kremer is a Missouri hog farmer and former president of Missouri Pork Producers Association. They wrote this article for this newspaper.